The Los Alamos YMCA is giving a series of hikes to showcase Los Alamos County Open Space Trails and the trail work that the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) did this summer.
The first one was last Friday to Deer Trap Mesa. A hiker on today's hike, who used to hike with the Lemon Lot group, said that last week, she was the only member of the public attending and the rest were all with the Y or the YCC.
I had gotten up early too many days last week and used last Friday to try to sleep later. I was going to do the same thing today but in the middle of the night, I set my alarm. I felt so tired last night (because of flu shot Monday?) that I went to bed around 10pm and actually fell asleep.
There were nine of us on the hike and I think that once again, the public was outnumbered by the people putting on the hike but we all enjoyed it. We walked on the Mitchell Trail to the bottom of where it starts switch backing up to Guaje Ridge. I continued on up to Guaje Ridge but everyone else went back. I wasn't carrying a backpack or water so the 1500' elevation gain was easy. I was plenty hydrated from breakfast. I reported back to the county open space director on two fallen trees and an incipient drainage problem. He asked me to report anything I saw.